The once classified CIA World Factbook provides policymakers with fundamental and factual reference material on countries around the world. The Portals to the World site can provide you with in-depth information about a country's culture, education system, language and literature, genealogy, and so on.
Basic Security Information
Here is a great resource for basic information on keeping your computers and the information housed there secure:
When you right click a file such as a graphic or sound file in Windows Explorer, you can select Open with from the menu that pops up. This lets you choose a program to use to open the file, instead of automatically opening it with the default program that's associated with that file type.
For example, maybe you normally want to open .jpg files with Internet Explorer because it's fast, but sometimes you want to open a .jpg with PhotoShop to edit it. There will usually be a list of programs that can open that file type. If the program you want to use doesn't appear in the list, you can select Choose Program and browse for the application you want to use. That program will appear in the list in the future when you select Open with for that type of file.
Saving Passwords in Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 5 and 6 can be configured to save your passwords automatically without the annoying pop-up asking you whether you want the password saved. To enable this feature:
Transferring Settings From One XP Computer to Another
You can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in XP to transfer your data and settings from another Windows XP, Windows 9x/ME, NT or 2000 computer to a new XP system. You will need your Windows XP installation CD to do this on a non-XP computer. The first step is to run the Transfer Wizard on your old computer. If it runs XP, you can access the wizard by doing the following:
Click Start
Click All Programs
Select Accessories
Select System Tools
Select File and Settings Transfer Wizard
On other systems:
Run Setup from the Windows XP CD
In the Setup menu, choose Perform Additional Tasks
On the next page, choose Transfer files and settings.
The easiest way to do this is if you have a home network to which both computers are connected. But if you don't, you can use a direct cable connection (connecting the two computers with a serial port cable), high capacity removable media, or save the data to the hard disk and burn it onto a CD if you have a CD writer. The wizard walks you through the steps.
Next, you run the Transfer Wizard on the new computer:
Click Start
Click All Programs
Select Accessories
Select System Tools
Select File and Settings Transfer Wizard
Again, you'll be walked through the steps to import your settings and data.
Remote Desktop - A Compelling Reason to Upgrade to Windows XP
Have you ever wished that you could access your office computer from home or a client's site? Maybe you forgot an important file or email that you just had to get at but couldn't because you were out of the office? Well, with Windows XP's Remote Desktop feature, this problem is solved.
If you have ever used Symantec's pcAnywhere, you have some idea of how Remote Desktop works. Once configured, this feature allows you to take control of a remote computer as if you were sitting at that PC. This means that from home, you can log in to your Office PC, and run Outlook to check your email. It means you can open file that reside on file servers that are also reside at the remote location. For all practical purposes, you are sitting at the remote computer. Heck, you can even quickly switch back and forth between the remote computer and the one you are sitting at, cutting and pasting information or whatever.
Of course, there are always limitations. The remote computer must be running Windows XP or Windows 2000 Server (the local PC can actually be running Windows 9x but XP is preferable). I have been using Remote Desktop to access office email and work on programs stored on our servers for a while and it works great.
